on such cordial terms with his clan.  ’Government (said he) has deprived us of our ancient power; but it cannot deprive us of our domestick satisfactions.  I would rather drink punch in one of their houses, (meaning the houses of his people,) than be enabled by their hardships to have claret in my own.[688]’ This should be the sentiment of every Chieftain.  All that he can get by raising his rents, is more luxury in his own house.  Is it not better to share the profits of his estate, to a certain degree, with his kinsmen, and thus have both social intercourse and patriarchal influence?

We had a very good ride, for about three miles, to Talisker, where Colonel M’Leod introduced us to his lady.  We found here Mr. Donald M’Lean, the young Laird of Col, (nephew to Talisker,) to whom I delivered the letter with which I had been favoured by his uncle, Professor M’Leod, at Aberdeen[689].  He was a little lively young man.  We found he had been a good deal in England, studying farming, and was resolved to improve the value of his father’s lands, without oppressing his tenants, or losing the ancient Highland fashions.

Talisker is a better place than one commonly finds in Sky.  It is situated in a rich bottom.  Before it is a wide expanse of sea, on each hand of which are immense rocks; and, at some distance in the sea, there are three columnal rocks rising to sharp points.  The billows break with prodigious force and noise on the coast of Talisker[690].  There are here a good many well-grown trees.  Talisker is an extensive farm.  The possessor of it has, for several generations, been the next heir to M’Leod, as there has been but one son always in that family.  The court before the house is most injudiciously paved with the round blueish-grey pebbles which are found upon the sea-shore; so that you walk as if upon cannon-balls driven into the ground.

After supper, I talked of the assiduity of the Scottish clergy, in visiting and privately instructing their parishioners, and observed how much in this they excelled the English clergy.  Dr. Johnson would not let this pass.  He tried to turn it off, by saying, ’There are different ways of instructing.  Our clergy pray and preach.’  M’Leod and I pressed the subject, upon which he grew warm, and broke forth:  ’I do not believe your people are better instructed.  If they are, it is the blind leading the blind; for your clergy are not instructed themselves.’  Thinking he had gone a little too far, he checked himself, and added, ’When I talk of the ignorance of your clergy, I talk of them as a body:  I do not mean that there are not individuals who are learned (looking at Mr. M’Queen[691]).  I suppose there are such among the clergy in Muscovy.  The clergy of England have produced the most valuable books in support of religion, both in theory and practice.  What have your clergy done, since you sunk into presbyterianism?  Can you name one book of any value, on a religious